Lead Lit Topic: Guiding Teachers
Here is where you'll find information on guiding teachers.
Results
Jennifer Allen on Working with New Teachers (PODCAST)
Franki Sibberson chats with Jennifer Allen about the joys and challenges of working with new teachers. A transcript is below the player. Franki Sibberson: What have you found to be...
How Study Groups Are Like Self-Cleaning Ovens
One of our favorite inventions ever is the self-cleaning oven. Set a timer, lock the oven door, and a few hours later -- voila! You have a clean oven, and...
Not That Into Me
For the past 11 years during the holiday season my husband and I have watched the movie Trapped in Paradise with my brother. The movie stars Nicholas Cage, Dana Carvey and Jon...
Quick Take: Protocols for Teacher Study Groups
In this three-minute Quick Take video, Clare Landrigan describes the teacher study group protocol she uses to foster shared understanding and allow for differentiated learning among teachers.
Eight Tips for Building Relationships: A Tale of Two Literacy Coaches
I stopped by Monroe School to see the literacy coach, Kate, before the school day began. I was in her office for about five minutes when second-grade teacher Leah burst...
The Power of Linking Words and Perceptions
It does not take long before we start to attach labels to children in any classroom. We begin to sort, both by academics and behavior. Soon we find ourselves using...
Troubleshooting Coaching Cycles
Last summer, we were fortunate to host Diane Sweeney at our coaching summer institute. Diane introduced us to the idea of coaching cycles. She assured us that coaching cycles would...
What Coaches Carry (Part 1)
As I prepare to mentor three new coaches this year in different assignments: elementary building coach, secondary reading intervention coach and middle grades math coach, I sit down to have...
Ways to Avoid Coaching Traps
When we first began providing staff development to schools, our mentor at Tufts University shared the book Strategies for Teacher Collaboration by Loviah Aldinger with us. We each carry a well-worn copy...
Word Choice for Coaches
Peter Johnston has written an entire book about the subtleties of our communications. In Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning, Johnston explores the places where work is partially correct. He...
Parallels Between Student Learning and Staff Development
"So, what are you working on now?" This is a question I seem to get a lot, and despite years of practice, it's always a tricky one. You see, I...
Three Little Phrases No Literacy Coach Can Live Without
If there are three skills any literacy coach needs, they are the ability to engage with colleagues, diffuse hostile situations, and connect with people who have a different world view....
Reflecting on Student Work in Staff Meetings (Download a Template)
Over the last four years our teaching staff has included reflecting on student work as a part of our staff meetings. To be honest, we struggled for probably three of...
Engaging Teachers with Coaching
When my husband and I rented the movie Slumdog Millionaire, I hid my eyes frequently during the first 30 minutes. Completely unprepared for the on-screen violence, I asked Kurt to nudge...
What is the Evidence?
The first and most brutal fact that must be confronted in creating professional learning communities is that the task is not merely challenging: it is daunting. It is disingenuous to...
What Coaches Carry (Part 2)
In part one of this series we began the conversation about what to carry to be prepared for the varied work of teacher leadership -- from teaching and one-on-one coaching,...
Coaching High Fives
I distinctly remember the hot, humid day in August when my family went to celebrate Travers Day at the Saratoga Race Course in New York. It was a beautiful summer...
Navigating Conversations
The thought had been weighing on my mind for a while. I needed to have a conversation with my principal. It is my job as a coach to keep a...
Getting Started with a Writing Habit: Six Kinds of Notebooking
I am a notebooker. I have stacks of journals that I write in across the days, months, and years. I have Morning Pages notebooks, gratitude journals, daily agendas, affirmation notebooks,...
Prepping a Fieldwork Site: Strategies for Launching Quality Partnerships
What does this space encourage? —James Clear, Atomic Habits Over the past 10 years, the teacher preparation program at my university has devoted a lot of time and energy to...
On Being a Wise Consumer: Three Questions to Filter Ideas
Kate has a not-so-slight obsession with WNBA player Caitlin Clark. In sharing with her class about Caitlin Clark, Kate played a video of the before-game ritual Caitlin has with her...
